'What has changed?' Bill to lower Florida's gun-buying age questioned

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Walking through the halls of the building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where a teenage gunman killed 17 people seven years ago left a deep impression on Senate President Ben Albritton.

“You can’t do that and not be affected profoundly,” Albritton, a Republican from rural Wauchula and a lifetime NRA member, said to a group of reporters, choking up with tears as he recounted his recent visit to the Parkland School.

He said he had gotten to know Tom and Gena Hoyer, whose 15-year-old son Luke was one of the victims of that mass shooting. And that made him think about his own son, and the changes made after the Parkland tragedy to make schools safer that some fellow Republicans in the Legislature want to reverse.

“I have to do the best I can based on experience, based on my values,” Albritton said. “It includes Luke Hoyer. That’s all I’ve got to say about it.”

Ultimately, Albritton’s powerful emotions will play a critical role in one of the highest-profile decisions of this legislative session: whether to change the allowable age for buying long guns from 21 back to 18 as it was before Parkland. As Senate president, Albritton can decide whether his chamber takes up a bill rapidly moving through the House. Though he has not clarified his intentions, three similar bills by senators have not moved since they were first introduced.

It’s the third year in a row Second Amendment conservatives have attempted to overturn the age requirement. They say it’s unconstitutional, despite two federal court rulings supporting its legality.

House Republicans also say the post-Parkland restrictions were passed in the heat of the moment and now cooler heads can prevail.

“This is a matter of public policy, and we have to take emotions out,” said Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Titusville, one of the two sponsors of the House bill. “There were tragic systemic failures,” he added, referring to Parkland and arguing the age limits “would not have made a difference.”

Family members of the victims and other opponents of this year’s bill have called it a slap in the community’s face, and disrespectful of the work that went into the gun safety package by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission that was chaired by Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

“This feels like salt being poured into an open wound,” said Debbie Hixon, a Broward County School Board member and the widow of Chris Hixon, the athletic director at MSD who was shot and killed that day. “The community came up here in grief and shock and asked you to do something, and you did it… and it made our communities safer.

“Now you want to repeal it makes me feel like you have forgotten who my husband and the other 16 victims were.”

A 19-year-old former student at the Parkland school carrying an AR-15 type rifle shot and killed 17 students and faculty and wounded many others. The Legislature immediately convened a special commission to make recommendations that were adopted and signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Scott, now a U.S. senator.

Those recommendations included raising the age for buying a long gun, imposing a three-day waiting period for most gun purchases, banning bump-fire stocks, allowing trained school employees to carry guns on campus, hiring more school resource officers, and allowing courts to prevent someone deemed a risk to themselves or others from possessing a firearm.

Those measures have all proven effective in preventing further gun violence in schools, Rep. Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs, said.

“What has changed? For me, nothing has changed,” Daley said.

But Rep. Michelle Salzman, R-Pensacola, a co-sponsor of legislation to return the long-gun age limit to 18, said the 2018 measure “was passed in a moment of fear, anger and anxiety.”

Lack of access to mental health treatment is the reason gun violence exists, she said.

“We hear emotional arguments all the time – our responsibility to put emotions aside and bring balance and equity to the state. This bill is merely doing that,” Salzman said. “When you turn 18 you can sign a contract, can get married, go into military. You can be sentenced to death.”

Daley countered that people between 18 and 20 are responsible for most school mass shootings. He also said that 18-year-olds in the military get weeks of training to learn how to responsibly handle a firearm.

The House measure is on its way to a floor vote with passage expected mostly along party lines. So far only one Republican has voted against it: Rep. Hillary Cassel, R-Dania Beach, who switched parties after she won reelection as a Democrat.

Albritton’s predecessor as Senate President, Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, refused to take up similar House bills two years running, saying she was focused on increasing mental health services to school kids.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the age limit was constitutional in 2023, and the full court reaffirmed that status just a week ago. But Attorney General James Uthmeier, who was appointed by DeSantis to replace Ashley Moody when she was tapped to fill out the term of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, said he would not defend the law if it is challenged again.

Albritton said he had legal staff working on an appropriate response to that. “I do not want to be impulsive.”